1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tools used by plumbers for clearing obstructions from waste lines, such as plumbers' snakes and sewer rods. More particularly, the invention relates to means for releasably interconnecting sectons of elongated elements, such as sections of flexible plumbers' snakes and sewer rods.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Plumbers commonly use elongated coiled spring elements known as plumbers' snakes for clearing waste lines of stoppages. A cutting or entangling tool is usually attached to the front end of a section of snake and the snake inserted and advanced through the pipeline by rotating it as it is advanced. Depending upon the distance of the obstruction in the pipe from the place where the snake is inserted, it often is necessary to attach additional lengths of snake to the first section in order to have sufficient over-all length to reach and clear the obstruction. Similarly, in some cases sectional sewer rods of much shorter length than the snakes are used and these must be coupled together as they are successively inserted in the pipe.
Heretofore considerable difficulty has been experienced in attaching and detaching the sections of plumbers' snakes and sewer rods because of the nature of the joints, many of which are cumbersome, require a tool for the operation, and are time consuming to operate. Also, many couplings are unsatisfactory in that they tend to loosen and become disconnected. If the sections of plumbers' snake become disconnected in the line great difficulty can be experienced in retracting the disconnected section. If the section cannot be successfully "fished" from the line, the lines must be severed and then rejoined, often at great expense.
One of the most successful prior art coupling known to applicant is that disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,449,003 to Hunt. The device of this patent has been used by the common assignee of the present application for a number of years. Experience has shown, however, that a substantial drawback of this prior art coupling resides in the fact that longitudinally offset release buttons calls for a double pressure and requires a seek and find approach to locate the two finger areas at which pressure is to be exerted. Additionally, in some cases two hands are required for effective disconnect of the coupling. The unique coupling of the present invention effectively overcomes the drawbacks of the Hunt device since the release buttons are aligned making the device readily operable with the fingers of one hand and eliminating the seek and find approach.